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What can I expect before and after the kittens are born

You’ve done your homework and found a compatible stud to complement your queen's pedigree and physical characteristics; both cats have passed the appropriate health testing for the breed and you have spent money having blood test done and having both cats blood grouped ( blood group A studs are incompatible to blood group B queens and the kittens could die soon after been born). She’s in season and it’s time to take her to the veterinarian for a prenatal checkup and to make sure that her vaccinations, medications and worming are up to date. Once you’ve bred her, she should be under veterinarian care for any illnesses and should be kept away from any cats that might pass viruses to her. Infestations, illnesses or diseases can affect the unborn kittens. queens can have miscarriages. If fetal death occurs early in the pregnancy, it is usually undetected and absorbed by the mother’s body. Abortion may result if fetal death occurs later in the pregnancy, and, dependent upon the cause of fetal death, the queen may carry the remaining fetuses to term. A number of things can cause fetal death, including fetal congenital defects, the physical health of the mother, her uterus and placenta, malnutrition, anything that alters the health of the mother. This can include reproductive tract diseases and illnesses, such as cystic endometrial hyperplasia, adhesions (possibly from previous pregnancies or caesarian-sections), tumours or hormonal imbalances. Diseases known to cause fetal death include cat FIV virus, Herpes Virus infection, Toxoplasmosis, etc etc

You will still need to keep your queen in top condition before she is mated. As the pregnancy progresse she will require about 30% more supplementary food during the last three to four weeks of her pregnancy. Now is a good time to put her on kitten food specially formulated for the needs of kittens and pregnant or lactating cats. She may become a bit moody and depressed or she may have no changes at all, other than an increased appetite and thickening around the middle.

As the birthing date nears, she may become restless. The birthing area should be ready so that she can become accustomed to it 2- 3 weeks prior. You may want to schedule a week before and after the due date or ensure that someone is home with her at all times. Some queens do have them early and premature kittens are the result. Queens should never be by themselves since trouble can occur and no one wants to come home to find dead kittens and/or a dead queen.

Be prepared for any problems that may occur once your queen goes into labour, have a basket ready and vet on stand-by and a good breeder near by, if possible attend a few births proir to breeding yourself to help prepare you and this can also help the lives of unborn kittens and your queen. Dystocia is a term associated with difficulty in labour. While uterine fatigue (inertia), due to length of labour or to lack of physical fitness prior to labour, is probably the most common cause of dystocia, other factors may also present problems, such as kittens too large for the pelvis or vaginal passage, malpresentation (breech kittens), prolapsed uterus, prolapsed vagina, uterine torsion, or ruptured uterine. You and your veterinarian will need to determine the cause of dystocia. Proper treatment may be either administering drugs (oxytocin) to increase uterine contractions, manual assistance in delivery, or surgery (a caesarian-section).

Once those kittens are all born, there are still dangers to both the kittens and to the queen. Eclampsia is not an extremely common disease, but it is life-threatening. While it is caused by low calcium levels in the blood caused by the demands of lactating, there is evidence that giving thequeen calcium during pregnancy may, in fact, predispose her to this condition. Small queens are particularly prone to this disease. Signs to watch for during the first three weeks of nursing includes behaviour changes such as restlessness, nervousness or lack of interest in the kittens. Left untreated, the next stage can be excessive salivation, a stiff or wobbly gait, or irritability. Continued lack of treatment may result in fever, inability to stand, muscle spasms, and seizures over the next few minutes to several hours. Death may occur due to hypothermia or respiratory depression. Queens suffering from eclampsia should be transported immediately to the veterinarian where, if consulted in time, the intravenous administration of calcium can result in rapid improvement. Recurrence can be prevented after such an episode by continuing to give oral calcium throughout the remainder of the lactation period. Calcium should be given upon a veterinarian’s advice only.

Much easier to recognize, mastitis is the infection and/or inflammation of the mammary gland and may include all or just one or several glands. The affected glands become firm and hard, often resembling rocks, are very red, warm to the touch and painful. Milk may possibly be off-colour. Veterinarians are divided in their opinions as to whether nursing from these infected glands may harm the kittens. Treatment includes antibiotics, massage and manual expression of the gland, warm compresses and may also include surgical drainage and flushing. some severe cases have seen the queens nipples having to be removed.

Kittens need to be kept in a dry, warm environment that is free of drafts. Care must be taken to keep the queen from stepping or lying upon the kittens and to ensure that each kitten is adequately cared and fed by the queen, particularly during the critical first three weeks. Newborn kittens are also extremely susceptible to other factors, such as disease and stresses such as physical trauma, infections from less than sanitary conditions, heavy parasite load, and congenital diseases.

Because it has been your decision to produce these kittens, it is your responsibility to make sure that they remain as healthy as possible. This means that your life for at least the first eight weeks will not be your own and, hopefully, your family will understand the stress and time constraints upon you. For those of you who are parents, think back to those first few months when it seemed as if you would never get any sleep again. Hopefully, you’ll be able to count upon the support of a partner or hire someone to help you care for the kittens during this time. After the kittens are three/four weeks old, you will need to start teaching them to eat a type of foodl. This results in extra time spent in preparing the food, cleaning bowls, assisting the kittens, and then in cleaning the kittens after so that skin infections do not occur from left-over foodl. This is, of course, on top of the average of a minimum of two hours a day spent in cleaning the kitten pen, exercising and feeding the mother, handling the kittens so that they become used to people, taking the kittens to the veterinarian for a health check, worming and vaccinations, cleaning the house, etc. Over an 13 week period of time, this results in a very minimum of 212 hours.

Once the kittens are weaned, from three to six weeks, time should be spent playing with them, cutting their toenails, carefully examining them to help accustom them to having ears, eyes, mouth looked at. Trusted people and children may come to visit the kittens, but only if you know that their cats, if any, have been completely vaccinated and they are not carriers of any viruses. Necessary to socialize the kittens, this is also an added cost to your time and expenses, since most of us will serve food and beverage of some sort to our friends.

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